👀Brief 03 example: Woodland

By Mungo Chambers

WHAT - 80% of UK trees are expected to die within the next 10 years due to Ash dieback. Through felling these ash trees, planting and re-wilding in their place, making products and creating a tool to help tree surgeons and foresters turn this wood into products, other than fuel, will make this situation less catastrophic.

HOW - Planting and rewilding enabling natural forest regeneration, Product making showing the possibilies of mid sized green timber being used to make products that can sit in the landscape, using common forestery tools so they can be made on site. Finally creating a tool from an adapted retractable washing line that has been modified to measure timber for planking as well as smaller timber uses such as planting stakes and fence posts.

WHY - To lock in more carbon from making products from wood and creating space for new planting in the context of millions of ash trees being lost due to the dieback disease.

Ash dieback (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus) is a fungus which originated in Asia ,its introduction to Europe about 30 years ago has devastated the European ash (Fraxinus excelsior) due to its lack of defence against this fungus.

Instagram:@mungo_designs

Designer: @mungochambers

Designed on the Distributed Design Studio with @othertoday on Product Design with Professional Experience BSc(Hons) at Brighton University

Plan

Insights

This project I look to modify the process of logging wood I aim to provide other options to logging to help lock in the carbon from felled trees.

Facts

Impact

Green - Positve points

Grey - Negative points

Purple - Design opportunity

Macro measures - impact of ash dieback levels on planting through rewilding projects.

Micro level - a shift away from fuel logs to carbon locking products resulting in increased profits.

Probe

The following equipment was used both for safety as well as useful items for investigating the problem area.

We began by looking for ash-dieback. This tree has been identified as being dead as there is no new growth at the top of the tree, this reduced crown size can be seen when you compare it to its surrounding trees. Also, new growths had started at the bottom of the tree, this is a distress response by the tree to the infection. Large cankers - dark spots of rot also ran from the trunk all the way up the tree.

This tree is beyond help – action needs to be taken swiftly to remove diseased trees as soon as they are positively diagnosed. It allows space for saplings to be planted in their place. This supports new eco-systems and biodiversity.

Key insights from the probe: I learnt how to identify ash dieback. The amount of wood that is deemed to have no use other than logs or woodchip. When chopping up the tree it is simply done in a way that only considers logging this is done in the safest fastest way without any thought of other possible uses.

Making & experiments

Initial ideas

I sketched up ideas that tackled problems identified from research probe and my interveiws.

Milling

Gus and I milled the trunk of the tree into three two-inch planks. One of the insights gained from the probe was that rarely sawdust is collected. This behaviour can be changed by laying out a tarpaulin enabling the sawdust to be collected. This has many uses such as animal bedding or mulch.

Stickers

I created a set of stickers to go on tree surgery equipment these were based on key insights gained, wasted sawdust, only considering logging and poor pruning practice that can lead to tree infection.

Developed ideas

Making

Using the milled planks with tools that are available on site. I designed a bench and a chair that could be made on the site where the tree is felled. Using green wood building techniques, so that with age joints can tighten even as the wood shrinks. These could easily be done after a job is finished and clients if they wish could pay for an extra half-day to have there trees turned into products that lock away carbon and have zero transport emissions. Tapping into the emotional attachment that people often have to their trees.

Timber Gauge

I modified a £5 retractable washing line to be used as a measuring tool. Adding a weighted hook from a bungee and a carabena for ease of use. The cable has coloured markings so the tree surgeon can easily identify the potential of the wood. The scale has been worked out using the required diameter adding an extra six inches to allow for the initial and last cuts, these are then multiplied by pi to get the required circumference..

Expert interviews

Interview 1 - Micro investigation

Date of Interview: 04/01/21

Name of Interviewee: Gus Porter

Position of Interviewee: Tree surgeon

"Cutting the tree in the wrong place leads to the tree not growing back properly, it can kill it"

Consent

Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed.

Footage and quotes will be used online as a part of the university project and may be seen by the general public are you happy with this.

"Yes i'm happy for you to use this information"

Could you talk me through an average job?

"I make an estimate of the price, what tools are required and how many people are needed I then work out access issues, how close I can get my truck and chipper to the tree."

"Next a risk assessment is made and relevant paperwork filled in."

"Depending on the size of the tree I tend to work top-down using either double rope or single rope assent. "

"Small branches are taken off and then larger branches come down, Chopping in small sections for safety."

What then happens to the material ?

"Anything up to 6 inches gets put through the chipper." "Sometimes the client wishes all the tree to go in this case I ring it - (turning into logs), take it away and sell the logs to the local community."

"Sawdust and other debris left behind from the chipper goes in a ton bag this is then burnt on a bonfire."

What happens to the wood-chip after a job?

"My main wood-chip customer runs a veg box business she uses a no-dig system so wants wood-chip to add on top of her veg patches. The wood-chip both acts as mulch giving the veg nutrients as well as blocking weeds from growing I get £20 per truckload which is roughly 2 tons."

"Alternatively Stowbarts or Stl Solutions do a collection service for good quality fresh wood-chip they pay £6 per ton this is used for biomass boiler and is burnt for energy."

What bad practice is there in the industry ?

"Saftey is a large issue as people often put themselves in danger by taking on jobs that they are not competent or qualified to do"

"There is lots of bad pruning practice where tree surgeons or untrained people don’t follow industry best practice by cutting the tree in the wrong place leads to the tree not growing back properly it can kill it or make it more prone to infection."

Interview 2 - Macro Investigation

Date of Interview: 11/01/21

Name of Interviewee: Ivan de Klee

Position of Interviewee: Conservationist at Knepp since 2015

"The green and pleasant land we associate with lovely England is actually pretty baron in terms of wildlife”

Consent

Hello, Thank you for accepting my invite!

Do you mind if I record this meeting? Footage and quotes will be used online as a part of the university project and may be seen by the general public.

“Of course you can record and feel free to post online, Its an important message to spread!”

What is rewilding?

“Everything is allowed to function as it should allowing nature to lead the system. Humans have to sit back and watch to a certain extent”

What is the overall environmental impact of rewilding?

“You're looking at a full house! you're taking usually degraded land and turning it into a store for biodiversity, water and carbon as well as soil improvement”

What are your thoughts on agroforestry ?

“Its a very exciting area you are creating timber your doing good things for soils good things for carbon and creating shelter belts for crops”

What's the comparison between trees planted using natural wilding and through a plantation

“Single species woodland is so grim ecologically but they take in a lot of carbon quickly but for how long? For the first 50-100 years its great but if your harvesting those and turning those into something that releases it then its pretty well pointless in my opinion”

How could rewilding stimulate sustainable economic activity?

“Public goods subsidies as well as private companies paying us to offset there biodiversity impact or carbon impact is the future of making money out of rewilding”

Thoughts on ash dieback?

"If we had a resilient ecosystem; a functioning one then losing a load of trees wouldn’t be the end of the world but because were so broken already losing a load of trees is pretty scary”

Why should we leave a tree where it falls?

"Deadwood is very important, part of our obsession from tying up came from victorian times keeping the landscape neat and tidy meant we were just removing deadwood, Its very important for birds, insects the soil beneath it its part of the system"

Any final comments?

“If your wanting to grow trees you don’t need to worry to much about planting just helps keep it uniform and manageable but its less good for biodiversity, so very pro-natural regen even if you want to harvest it”

Supply Chain Impact

With the addition of the measuring gauge alongside on site builds the supply chain is diverted towards carbon capture as well as increasing profits.

Instructions

Photos

Film

@youtube

Manifesto

Summary

This project has made me aware that there is alot of potential for midsized green wood production as well as the importance of educating tree surgeons to contribute positivly to the enviroment. Ashdieback and the biodiversity crisis are big issues in the UK today but small changes can have a big impact when implemented on a large scale.

Ivan de Klee - "Thank you it has been very interesting for me to consider the potential of timber as part of the re-wilding process"

Gus porter- "What I like about the timber gauge is its light, clips on to my trousers and is quick and easy to use, im definitely going to grade and sort my wood in the future"